Claude Opus 4.5 Reasoning vs Claude Sonnet 4.5 Max: which model should you choose?
We compared Claude Opus 4.5 Reasoning and Claude Sonnet 4.5 Max on price, context window and 12 benchmarks. Claude Opus 4.5 Reasoning has the stronger average benchmark score; Claude Sonnet 4.5 Max is cheaper on a blended 3:1 basis.
Claude Opus 4.5 Reasoning
Claude Opus 4.5 Reasoning is a frontier model from Anthropic. It offers a 2,000,000-token context window, costs $20.91 per million input tokens and $108.13 per million output tokens, and averages 88.2 across the index's benchmark suite.
- Input
- $20.91 / 1M
- Output
- $108.13 / 1M
- Context
- 2,000,000
- Avg score
- 88.2
- Open weights
- No
Claude Sonnet 4.5 Max
Claude Sonnet 4.5 Max is a frontier model from Anthropic. It offers a 1,000,000-token context window, costs $19.90 per million input tokens and $95.47 per million output tokens, and averages 87.2 across the index's benchmark suite.
- Input
- $19.90 / 1M
- Output
- $95.47 / 1M
- Context
- 1,000,000
- Avg score
- 87.2
- Open weights
- No
Specification comparison
| Spec | Claude Opus 4.5 Reasoning | Claude Sonnet 4.5 Max | Edge |
|---|---|---|---|
| Input price / 1M | $20.91 | $19.90 | B |
| Output price / 1M | $108.13 | $95.47 | B |
| Context window | 2,000,000 | 1,000,000 | A |
| Max output | 16,384 | 65,536 | B |
| Average score | 88.2 | 87.2 | A |
| Arena Elo | 1497.5 | 1474.9 | A |
| Open weights | No | No | Tie |
Benchmark comparison
Claude Opus 4.5 Reasoning wins 7, Claude Sonnet 4.5 Max wins 5, and 0 benchmarks are tied. The table shows the modelled score for each model and the gap.
| Benchmark | Claude Opus 4.5 Reasoning | Claude Sonnet 4.5 Max | Gap | Winner |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| MMLU-Pro | 90.7 | 86.1 | 4.6 | Claude Opus 4.5 Reasoning |
| GPQA Diamond | 82.6 | 84.4 | 1.8 | Claude Sonnet 4.5 Max |
| SWE-bench Verified | 79.5 | 80.2 | 0.7 | Claude Sonnet 4.5 Max |
| HumanEval | 92.1 | 92.4 | 0.3 | Claude Sonnet 4.5 Max |
| MATH-500 | 91.6 | 92.8 | 1.2 | Claude Sonnet 4.5 Max |
| AIME 2025 | 88.9 | 85.4 | 3.5 | Claude Opus 4.5 Reasoning |
| LiveCodeBench | 81.8 | 82.8 | 1.0 | Claude Sonnet 4.5 Max |
| IFEval | 95.9 | 92.9 | 3.0 | Claude Opus 4.5 Reasoning |
| TruthfulQA | 89.0 | 87.3 | 1.7 | Claude Opus 4.5 Reasoning |
| HellaSwag | 93.8 | 93.1 | 0.7 | Claude Opus 4.5 Reasoning |
| MMMU | 84.6 | 82.0 | 2.6 | Claude Opus 4.5 Reasoning |
| Arena Elo | 1497.5 | 1474.9 | 22.6 | Claude Opus 4.5 Reasoning |
Price analysis
On a blended 3:1 input-to-output basis, Claude Opus 4.5 Reasoning costs about $42.72 per million tokens and Claude Sonnet 4.5 Max costs about $38.79. Claude Sonnet 4.5 Max is roughly 9% cheaper than Claude Opus 4.5 Reasoning. At high volume, that gap compounds quickly, so price should carry real weight unless the quality difference is decisive.
Claude Opus 4.5 Reasoning has the larger context window at 2,000,000 tokens, compared with 1,000,000 for Claude Sonnet 4.5 Max. That matters for long documents, large codebases and multi-step agent traces.
Verdict
Across 12 shared benchmarks, Claude Opus 4.5 Reasoning wins 7, Claude Sonnet 4.5 Max wins 5, and 0 are tied. On the index average, Claude Opus 4.5 Reasoning leads Claude Sonnet 4.5 Max by 1.0 points (88.2 versus 87.2).
The price picture favours Claude Sonnet 4.5 Max. The context picture favours Claude Opus 4.5 Reasoning. Those two dimensions often matter more than a few benchmark points once a model is good enough for the task.
If you need a single default, start with Claude Opus 4.5 Reasoning for quality-sensitive work and Claude Sonnet 4.5 Max for high-volume, well-scoped tasks. Run both on a sample of your own traffic before locking in a choice.
Choose Claude Opus 4.5 Reasoning if
- You want the higher average benchmark score in this index.
- You need the larger 2,000,000-token context window.
Choose Claude Sonnet 4.5 Max if
- Unit cost matters and you want the cheaper blended price.
- You need the larger 65,536-token output limit.
FAQ
Is Claude Opus 4.5 Reasoning better than Claude Sonnet 4.5 Max?
On the index average, Claude Opus 4.5 Reasoning leads Claude Sonnet 4.5 Max by 1.0 points (88.2 versus 87.2). The better choice depends on price, context and your task. Claude Opus 4.5 Reasoning wins 7 benchmarks, Claude Sonnet 4.5 Max wins 5.
Which is cheaper, Claude Opus 4.5 Reasoning or Claude Sonnet 4.5 Max?
Claude Sonnet 4.5 Max is cheaper on a blended 3:1 basis at about $38.79 per million tokens, versus $42.72 for Claude Opus 4.5 Reasoning.
Which has the larger context window?
Claude Opus 4.5 Reasoning has the larger context window at 2,000,000 tokens. Claude Sonnet 4.5 Max has 1,000,000 tokens.
Are these models open weights?
Claude Opus 4.5 Reasoning is proprietary; Claude Sonnet 4.5 Max is proprietary.
Which should I choose for production?
If you need a single default, start with Claude Opus 4.5 Reasoning for quality-sensitive work and Claude Sonnet 4.5 Max for high-volume, well-scoped tasks. Run both on a sample of your own traffic before locking in a choice.